External Investigation Finds Small Number Of Aurora PD Officers Create The Most Problems (Plus 98 Other Reason To Improve)

Legal Issues

from the things-the-PD-already-knew-but-didn't-want-to-deal-with dept

Maybe cops are too close to the action? Perhaps that’s why it always seems it takes an outside entity to discover the problems (and problem officers) in police departments. The US Department of Justice frequently does this (less frequently from 2017-2020), although the long-term effects of its consent decrees and investigations seems to be pretty much negligible.

So, why can’t the police police themselves? The most obvious answer is there’s no reason to. Few politicians are willing to go head-to-head with law enforcement agencies and even less willing to do so with their unions. Appearing to be tough on crime usually plays well enough it won’t cost them votes. Looking the other way keeps legislators employed.

Accountability activists are doing the work we’re paying professional government employees to do, for the most part. But recent events have made some legislators realize sucking up to cops isn’t as likely to result in lifetime employment as it used to. Changes will be made, if only because they’re politically expedient.

But back to the original question: why can’t cop shops determine what’s holding them back or which cops are a detriment to the force? We’re still left to speculate, but there’s no speculated answer that makes these agencies look good. And neither do the outside reports, which highlight tons of stuff that should have been obvious to those closest to the action.

This report deals with a single agency in a Colorado city with a population of 369,000. And yet…

Here are the 99 ways Aurora police can improve, according to a comprehensive review launched by the city

Ninety. Nine. Only Jay-Z had this many problems and he was able to subtract at least one.

The Aurora PD has problems. It cannot pretend it doesn’t. There’s too much on the record. And yet, it refuses to do anything about it. Prompted by a series of incidents in 2020 — including an officer passed out drunk behind the wheel of a police car, the killing of Elijah McClain, and the wrongful detainment of a black woman and her four children, the City of Aurora decided to engage in some long-delayed oversight.

Its findings are things the PD should have known. (And likely knew, but did nothing about.) There are terrible officers. And there are the rest of the officers, supervisors, and top-level management who look the other way, which definitely does not make them “good” cops.

Just 35 officers accounted for 40% of the officer misconduct cases between 2017 and 2020, a “disproportionately large share,” according to investigators.

Can the PD operate without these officers? Most likely, yes. But it refuses to get rid of its worst employees, which turns city residents into ATMs for lawsuit settlements.

Why haven’t these officers been ousted? Well, it’s the department itself, which is most likely hamstrung by its contract with the Aurora Police Association, the local union that stands as a bulwark between bad officers and the accountability that would result in a better police department. The report also states there’s too much red tape for discipline to be effective, and that internal investigations take too long.

And so, having ignored the problems for years, the list of problems is exceedingly long. (And, to be fair, it is, at times, somewhat repetitive.) One of the main areas needing improvement is the PD’s use of force policies. What’s in place is minimal and provides very little guidance. It needs more specifics and limitations. The report lists a large number of improvements, including de-escalation as the default and giving people the opportunity to comply with commands before handing out beatdowns.

This, of course, will require more training, which the report recommends.

And there should be a lot more transparency and accountability.

APD should require officers to document, and provide specific information about, all interactions with the public that are not voluntary.

[…]

APD should make information about complaints relating to bias, profiling, and discrimination available on its website, along with information about the adjudication of investigations of such complaints.

A large part of the report deals with the APD’s handling of complaints against officers. The way it works now is that it doesn’t work. It’s (perhaps intentionally) convoluted, complex, and unlikely to result in thorough or timely investigations. The report says nearly everything about this needs to change.

Complaint and discipline procedures should be codified in separate directives with an emphasis on enhanced clarity.

The current process for handling external complaints should be streamlined. Currently, it is convoluted and substantially more complex than it should be. Policies relating to administrative investigations and external complaints should be consolidated.

Allegations of misconduct against employees that may result in discipline or other corrective actions should be identified and categorized by the severity of rule, policy, practice violation in the rewritten directive.

These are all recommendations. It’s unclear whether the APD is under any obligation to implement them. And if the city does make these mandatory, it’s unclear how much its existing agreement with the APD’s union will prevent some of these from moving forward. But it’s clear the department needs to change. The disappointing thing is that it took the city (and city residents’ tax dollars) to point out problems the APD already should have been aware of… and problems it should have already been making efforts to address.

Filed Under: aurora, aurora pd, colorado, police, police unions